Soundgarden guitarist: ‘There’s no dignity in continuing without Chris Cornell’

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Kim Thayil says there is 'no dignity' continuing the band after Cornell's death.

Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil says the band cannot continue following the death of singer Chris Cornell.

Following Cornell’s death in 2017, Thayil has said he would like to work again with the band’s surviving members, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd, but that they wouldn’t want to continue using the Soundgarden name.

“It’s likely Matt, Ben and I will do something in the future,” he told Billboard. “It just probably won’t be Soundgarden. I don’t see the dignity in pursuing that course.”

Cornell died by suicide following a Soundgarden concert in May 2017. Thayil has helped to oversee a compilation of Cornell’s whole career, which encompassed Audioslave, Temple Of The Dog and a solo career as well as his work with Soundgarden. The compilation is entitled ‘An Artist’s Legacy’ and out now.

Thayil also confirmed that unreleased music from Soundgarden would appear at some point, saying that it was important that the band’s legacy is looked after.

“The legacy needs to be maintained,” he said. “That’s why I’m overseeing the catalogue and the merchandise. I’ve been doing that all along, as it’s important the legacy is understood.”

The band had been working on a new album before Cornell’s death. Thayil said: “There’s material there we can flesh out once we can access the basic multi-track recordings. That’s being discussed.”

Asked what older unreleased materials could emerge, Thayil said a full album could emerge from the sessions the band recorded for the Sub Pop label. He said: “We recorded enough material for an album-plus, but we only released an EP initially and then we moved onto the ‘Fopp’ thing.” Stating that Sub Pop wanted to focus on EPs at the time, he said the label was now interested in releasing a full album from the sessions.

Cameron, Thayil and Shepherd attended an unveiling of a statue of Cornell last month at Museum Of Pop Culture in Seattle.